Yuwa India

Through football and education, Yuwa helps girls in rural Jharkhand take their futures into their own hands. By bringing vulnerable girls out of isolation and into a positive team environment, Yuwa combats child marriage and human trafficking. This intensely participatory model produces supremely confident girls and powerful belief changes. Yuwa breaks the cycle of poverty by creating a culture of empowerment through daily football practices, a full-time girls’ school, life-skills workshops, coaches’ leadership development, and dignified employment. Girls in Yuwa participate heavily in planning their own programs. The sense of ownership and responsibility over the programs contributes to the girls’ leadership development and future employability. 

 Yuwa’s programs are holistic and ongoing throughout the year. Participants usually join around the age of six to eight years old and remain in the football, education, and leadership programs until they graduate to pursue higher education or job training—usually after the age of eighteen or nineteen. Yuwa has been featured in Washington Post, Al Jazeera, Bloomberg Businessweek, BBC, Sports Illustrated, Hindustan Times, NDTV, Times Now, Indian Express, ABC News and many others. Yuwa's awards include: • 2019 Laureus Sport for Good Award • 2017 Microsoft People of Action • 2016 India Today Digital Trailblazers Award • 2015 Cequin WOWmen Award Celebrating Men for Women • 2014 - 2019 FIFA Football for Hope Awardee • 2013 Beyond Sport ‘Sport for Social Inclusion’ Global Award • 2013 Times Now Amazing Indians Award • Yahoo India "12 Unsung Heroes of 2012" • 2012 NDTV Spirit of Sport Award, ("Best Promotion of Education through Sport") • 2012 Ashoka Changemakers award (all-Asia winner) for Innovative Secondary Education for Skills Enhancement (ISESE) • 2011 Nike Gamechangers Award